After 7-hour meeting, CaroMont board fires CEO

CaroMont Health leaders voted to terminate CEO and President Randall Kelley from the Gaston County health system position.

Michael Barrett / Halifax Media Group

A nearby county’s hospital board has fired its CEO.

CaroMont Health leaders voted to terminate CEO and President Randall Kelley from the Gaston County health system position.

The decision came after a special Monday night meeting of the CaroMont Health board of trustees. It began at 5 p.m. and lasted almost seven hours, with the board finally coming out of closed session to vote.

Only one person on the 14-member board voted against firing Kelley, while one trustee reportedly abstained.

Doug Luckett, CaroMont’s executive vice president and chief operating officer, was appointed the interim CEO.

The board made its decision just three days after some 60 physicians met with many of them and voiced frustration with Kelley’s leadership over the past 16 months.

Two longtime Gastonia physicians also submitted a formal letter to the trustees, and to The Star’s sister paper The Gaston Gazette, in which they laid out their grievances.

Dr. Steven Yates of Gaston Hematology and Oncology and Dr. Frederic Levy of ENT Carolina said in their letter that decisions made by top hospital executives since Kelley’s hiring have led to inadequate doctor staffing and are compromising patient care at CaroMont Regional Medical Center.

The two said they are tolling the bell for dozens of other local physicians who feel Kelley’s administration is threatening health care in the community.

Kelley, a Michigan native, joined CaroMont Health on Jan. 1, 2012. He had been the CEO of Inova Loudoun Hospital and senior vice president of Inova Health System in Leesburg, Va., since 2006.

In the six months between Jan. 1 and June 30, 2012, Kelley made $293,651 in base pay at CaroMont Health. State law only requires the hospital to report Kelley’s compensation as of June 30, the end of the last fiscal year.

Kelley received a six-month temporary housing allowance of $21,000 as part of his relocation package. He also received a sign-on bonus of $90,000, which was a one-time bonus authorized by the trustees to mitigate part of the compensation he lost when he left his prior position.

Kelley received a deferred compensation contribution of $76,492 in the first six months of his employment. He received additional benefits with a total value of $5,255, according to the hospital.

CaroMont Health spokeswoman Dallas Paddon said Kelley was paid on a competitive basis.

“Mr. Kelley's salary (was) at the median of the market of other similarly-sized not-for-profit health care organizations, with which Caromont competes for executive positions,” she said in an email. “Compensation decisions are made by independent members of the board, using a process that fully complies with IRS requirements and qualifies for an IRS safe harbor.”

“We appreciate the hard work and dedication of all the members of our work force during this difficult time of transition,” she said in the email. “We will continue to keep you informed as further decisions are made.”